Brooke and I took our first day trip to San Francisco with just the
two of us.
On the way, I wanted to stop at vista
point in San Mateo. Well, we missed the exit, but apparently there
is a second vista point on the other side of the freeway one exit
down! I’m not sure what we missed, I guess we will have to go
again. We had a nice little pepperoni sandwich I prepared, but it was
super windy!
This time, we went to the Presidio,
and walked about 2 miles to the golden gate bridge.
This was a pretty nice San Francisco
experience for a few reasons. I think due to the season, there were fewer people, and thus we could actually find parking. Also, it was
really windy.
After our hike, we went to Del Popolo,
which was recommended to me by one of my co-workers (from Italy, mind
you).
We somehow managed to park directly in
front of the restaurant, just on the other side of the street! It
also was after 6 pm, so we didn’t even have to pay for parking! I
went in to put our name down, and they said maybe an hour. I was
actually expecting 2 for a Saturday night. We walked around maybe 10
minutes before they texted us that they were ready! We didn’t even
have enough time to find a restroom, which for some reason is harder
than you might expect in SF (really though, there is a serious
shortage of restrooms in the city). I thought the food there was
pretty good, but I was expecting something exceptional. The service
was exceptionally fast. Like we ordered, took turns using the
restroom, and then waited less than 5 minutes and the pizza was at
our table. The first pizza we got was a little burned. Now, it was
Neapolitan style, so there should be some blackening on the crust,
but the blackening on the first piece resulted in just a little too
much burnt taste coming through the pizza. I didn’t love our
topping choice either, salami picante. I’m not an Italian expert,
so I don’t really know what to expect.
Anyways, we got the second pizza which
was a margherita, which had a perfect crust - soft, and a little crisp
on the outside. We got this pizza a few minutes after the first. The server told
us they remade it as the first one wasn’t perfect. Which, I think
is a polite way of saying, they burnt the heck out of it! The bites
of basil, mozzarella, sauce and crust were delicious! But, there was
only like 3 leafs of basil on the pizza, and thus only like 3 of
those great bites! The sauce on both pizzas was a little acidic, and
I thought it could use just a little pinch of sugar. I think that has
to do with my American palate though. The bill was about $50
after the tip for two pizzas, which about perfectly filled up my wife
and I (I got about a slice and a half of her pizza). So I don’t
think it's a recommendation from me. The service was excellent, but
we also had the most awkward seat, a bar seat facing a wall kind of
in the corner.
Anyways, in short, maybe traditional
isn’t always best. I’m glad for the experience, but pizza with
more cheese, slightly less acidic sauce, and a better distribution of
toppings just seems more appealing to me.
